The Campfire alternative for writers who'd rather just write
Campfire is a powerful worldbuilding suite, but eighteen modules is a lot of setup before you write a sentence. Inkling gives you the essential tools, storyboard, characters, maps, covers, goals, and recaps, in one place beside your draft, for one simple price.
still smells like her coffee
the old flame, still in town
came home to run the diner
home an hour, already locked out
one’s addressed to her
| Inkling | Campfire | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to your first page | Open it and write today. The essentials are already set up. | Powerful, but eighteen modules to explore and configure before you're really writing. |
| Pricing | One simple plan: 14-day trial, then $9/mo, or $72/yr as a Founding Writer. Everything included. | A free tier (up to 25,000 words, 10 characters and 2 maps), then Standard, shown at $12/mo (down from $19), with annual, lifetime and custom plans. |
| Where your manuscript lives | In Inkling's own editor, with a “Previously…” recap at the top of each story, or connect a Google Doc if you prefer. | In Campfire's own editor and ecosystem. |
| Worldbuilding depth | Hand-drawn maps with realms and cities on real streets, characters, and notes for the world your book actually needs. | Deeper and more granular: conlangs, detailed timelines, and encyclopedic modules for architecting a whole universe. |
| The idea | The essential writing desk, in one place. | A maximal worldbuilding suite you assemble from parts. |
Everything in one place, not eighteen
Campfire hands you a wall of modules to switch on, learn, and wire together. Inkling takes the opposite approach: the tools most writers actually reach for, a storyboard, a character builder, a map maker, covers, goals, and recaps, are already here and already talking to each other. Nothing to assemble, nothing to configure. Bring in a story and start.
One plan, everything included
Campfire's free tier is a generous way to start, and past its limits you choose a plan. Inkling has no lasting free tier: it is a 14-day trial, then one plan with every tool included, so there is nothing to add on later and the only thing left to decide is what happens in chapter nine.
Honestly, Campfire is a marvel for worldbuilders
If you want to architect an entire universe, invent a language, chart a thousand-year timeline, and go deep on every corner of your world, Campfire is genuinely superb, and we won't pretend otherwise. Inkling is for writers who want the essential tools in one place and would rather spend the hours writing the book than building the toolset.
Beside your actual writing
The point of Inkling is proximity: the storyboard, the cast, and the map all sit on the same desk as the chapter you are writing, one click from the page, whether you write in Inkling's editor or a connected Google Doc. Your world lives with your words, not in a separate program they have to be exported to and from.
All of it. In one place.
This isn't five apps stitched together. Your storyboard, your cast, your maps, your covers, and the story itself all live on one desk, right beside the words. Nothing to sync between tools. No five separate subscriptions. Just everything a writer needs, finally in the same place.
Your whole writing desk, in one place
Start free today. Bring one story in, and see how much lighter it feels with everything beside it.